The Way It Was

100 years ago:

AD: Deciding the piano question!

We are satisfied to be known by our pianos.

Years ago we went through the experimental stages. Today we are practically without competition in Piano Selling in Nevada and Vernon County. Music stores may come and go, but J.H. Kaylor & Co. will be found doing business at the old stand. We have enough kinds of pianos here to meet your wishes and desires -- exactly the kind of Piano you ought to have at precisely the price you wish to pay and on almost any terms you ask.

75 years ago:

A new graft being worked on Highway 71

A new kind of graft has shown up on Highway 71. Tuesday afternoon, three well-dressed men in an almost new car, stopped at Mrs. Stile's place, at the crossing of the highways and made a great show of looking over the cabins and her lunch room. They told her they were inspectors and the fee would be $5, says the Lamar Democrat. She wrote a check for $5 and they pulled across, as Mrs. Stiles thought, to inspect Tom Smith and Bob Faubion's place south of Highway 12. They didn't do any inspecting there. They merely got 50 cents worth of gas, turned Mrs. Stiles' check in for payment, receiving $4.50 in change.

They went on south a mile and a half and stopped at Walter Kremp's station, where they again put on the show of looking over the cabins and the lunch room. Five dollars please. Mrs. Kremp, who was in charge at the time, wrote the check for $5, and handed it over.

Both checks will be held up, so the losers this time will be the folks who cashed them.

50 years ago:

Mower business

This year for the first time, G.W. Brunts, owner of the G.W. Brunts Manufacturing Co., is producing his Hi-Lo lawn mowers on an assembly line basis.

The Hi-Lo mower, which Brunts invented and perfected, has proved highly successful and word-of-mouth advertising has built up an increased demand for the mowers. Brunts now has two employees working on the mowers besides himself, as well as a contract welder.